


It's so Cold Outside. Would You Open Up? Let Me Inside?

by Meatbike344



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cuckolding, Dirty Talk, Explicit Sexual Content, Feeding, Felix is kind of a slut here, Gangbang, Gothic, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Rough Sex, Sadism, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:47:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27822508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meatbike344/pseuds/Meatbike344
Summary: Felix woke up to a man at his window.A man with golden hair like the summers that never came, a pale body with edges that of a marble statue, and a set of utterly white teeth. Fangs probing out of the thinly curled lips.Fangs. Solid white fangs that curled down and slightly under like icicles.The man smiled a devastatingly sharp grin and Felix’s heart stopped. A voice came, low and deep with a very faint imitation of a human’s voice, like a bird repeating back a greeting—recognizable but the animalistic limitations were still there.“This night is so cold, so cold...would you open up? Let me inside?”
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Felix Hugo Fraldarius
Comments: 16
Kudos: 97
Collections: 2020 Dimilix Exchange





	It's so Cold Outside. Would You Open Up? Let Me Inside?

Felix woke up to a man at his window.

He thought it was merely a half-dream, an image hovering between the boy’s dreamless sleep and premature awakening. But when that gentle almost teasing rap on the thin glass sounded through Felix’s shallow slumber, he stirred. He rubbed his groggy eyes, rose slightly and met the stare of winter.

A pure, cruel winter.

A man right at Felix’s window from the fifth floor of his family’s grand castle.

Felix could not breathe. He had forgotten to at the very moment. The boy could only gawk in a muted shock at the smiling stranger on the other side. A man with golden hair like the summers that never came, a pale body with edges that of a marble statue, and a set of utterly white teeth. Fangs probing out of the thinly curled lips.

Fangs. Solid white fangs that curled down and slightly under like icicles.

The man smiled a devastatingly sharp grin and Felix’s heart stopped. A voice came, low and deep with a very faint imitation of a human’s voice, like a bird repeating back a greeting—recognizable but the animalistic limitations were still there.

“Good evening,” the man uttered very slowly, each word slipping off the tongue in a foreign slur. He tilted his head ever so slightly and smiled without showing his teeth.

Felix did not reply. The boy was still frozen stiff in his bed, paralyzed in both body and mind. His mouth dropped soundlessly and his tongue hung heavy and limp.

The nighttime visitor laughed at Felix’s muted awestruck though the humorous sound came out like a distant church bell—ominously ringing in the night. He hummed lowly and leaned in close, knuckles still sprayed lightly against the frosted-thin glass.

A sewing needle alone could scatter the window.

“I apologize for stirring you, beloved,” the man cooed with glowing eyes of ice. “But this night is awfully cold.”

“Yes…,” was all Felix could say and even then, it came out as an inaudible squeak.

The boy wanted to move; he wanted to get up and dash to his older brother’s room. He wanted to wake up his father and point to the monster. He wanted to quiver and hide. But his body betrayed him with a terrifying numbness and all he could do is stare at the man outside his window.

“Only a fool like myself can be caught on a night like this. Where the wind is blowing through this cruel country,: the stranger explained in a feigned pleading tone.

He peered at the stiff boy, licked his pale lips—revealing a dead-gray tongue slipping out momentarily, and he smiled white-teethed.

“This night is so cold, so cold...would you open up? Let me inside?”

In that moment, tiny pin needles shot so deeply into Felix’s heart that he briefly passed out while awake. The overexerted heart of a rabbit beat viciously on his fragile body—a rabbit hiding in a snowy thicket as a beast lurked outside. A passing second a thought to stay or run the small creature’s body thumping wildly with huge eyes centered dead at the icicle-like fangs right beyond the thick branches.

_Run or stay?_

_Run or stay?_

The rabbit closed its eyes, listened to the growling sounds beyond its sanctuary and---

“No.”

The man blinked. “No?”

“N-No…,” Felix repeated hoarsely as his fingers dug into the side of his thighs.

A soft laugh. Not one of frustration as Felix had been expecting but...amusement? Almost an impressive sound. The man shook his head and arched a curious brow at the boy.

“Would you deny a freezing stranger sanctuary from the cold?” he asked ruefully.

“There’s...always the door,” Felix suggested knowing fully well that the guards would never let a stranger in.

“Sweet thing, it has an iron lock and there’s no way in tonight,” the man explained in a sickly sweet voice, dark implication dripping from every word. He leaned in until forehead touched the cold glass, blue eyes flaring out like moons in a black, starless night. “Open up—let me inside...this night is so cold.”

“No,” Felix reaffirmed again, even finding strength in his legs to slip out of the bed.

When his bare feet touched the floor, the absolute chilliness of the stone made him visibly shiver; the man at the window chuckled—glowing, hungry orbs watching as the boy backed up all the way to his bedroom door.

A fanged smile in the darkness like a dagger; a slow wave.

“Well, then. Have a peaceful night, my smart little boy.”

But Felix had already slipped out and made a mad dash for his brother’s room. He dove right under the covers, stirring the older boy slightly awake, and curled up with a soundless cry beneath his brother’s arms. He did not say a thing, merely keeping his teary eyes shut and small body curled up into his older brother’s chest. A warm hand reached over and protectively wrapped around him into a tight embrace.

However, even with the older brother sleeping beside him, Felix could not sleep. All night, the mechanical voice of an imitated human called out to him, and all the boy could do is watch the window.

_______________________

Felix’s father or brother did not believe him about his nighttime visitor.

Glenn merely shook his head and laughed when the younger brother desperately told him.

“At your window? You live on the fifth floor, Fel. I hardly think anyone can scale an icy wall that high.”

“He was there, I swear!” The boy declared, grabbing onto Glenn’s arm in a tug. “That’s why I ran into your room last night!”

“Are you sure that it wasn’t a nightmare?”

“No! You’re starting to sound like father!”

“Can you blame us?” Glenn tilted his head and frowned strained. “oh, come now, don’t cry. Okay, okay—listen here: I’ll come and sleep in your room tonight so no bad men can climb to your window. Does that sound good?”

Felix nodded viciously and hugged his brother’s warm torso in agreement.

That night, the man did not show up. Felix huddled up against Glenn’s sleeping form, back turned to the window. However, thin shadows passed over in the gentle moonlight and some time in the deep, disquieting night, Felix felt a striking gaze shot directly into his back.

Burning through his skin like raw fire; the thin tip of a freshly sharpened knife slipping down from the neck to the back.

Turn around.

Felix clung to Glenn and kept his eyes shut tightly. A rabbit’s wickedly quick heart came back.

_The night is so cold..._

Slumber never came, the knife never left from his skin, and the boy never turned around.

Even as a winged shadow stretched out into the pale moonlight—two blue pinholes of light glowed ominously, Felix did not turn around. He couldn’t. He stayed glued to Glenn’s sleeping chest and breathed slowly through his nose.

_Open up…_

Felix did not turn around.

_Let me inside._

That morning, the boy opened up his window only to find long, white streaks running down the stone.

Like claw marks.

_______________________

On the third night when Glenn decided to sleep in his own room after believing Felix’s mania was merely a child’s nightmare, the younger brother finally decided to take matters into his own hands.

In an act of desperation, the boy took the edges of his own blanket and pinned them on either side of his window, acting as a heavy curtain and veil. He stole one of the extra blankets from storage and hunkered down for the night in the complete dark shadow of his makeshift window.

It was not long before the boy heard the fated rap against the glass once more—gentle and somewhat teasing. Followed by a low throaty chuckle—an inhumane noise—a nonchalant hum.

The voice came, one that haunted Felix’s sleepless nights like a vicious plague—unseeable and unpleasant, and it smiled at him through the blanket.

“Oh? Were you waiting for me, little one?” The man—creature, cooed sweetly. A single knuckle rapped against the glass, beckoning. “It’s awfully cold out tonight. Won’t you let me inside?”

Felix held his breath and pretended to sleep, pretended to not listen to the siren outside of his window. Something strange and hypnotizing unconsciously drew his hand over to the blanket. When he tore the veil away, the boy came once, face-to-face, with the winter-eyed golden-haired perfect imitation of a man. The thing flared up excitedly at the sight of the boy and smiled.

It was just Felix, the man at the window, and the extremely thin sheet of glass that separated them.

No one dared move.

“What do you want?” Felix finally asked very quietly.

“The night is cold. Would you open up? Let me inside?” The man repeated the mantra once again.

“What are you?” The boy braved himself in ignoring his visitor’s request.

A chilly moment. And then the man pulled his lips back to a white, toothy smile, showing the long, dagger-sharp canines beneath. Enough to pierce through the layers of skin and meat and right into the pulsing veins.

Felix stared at the set of inhuman fangs, blinking occasionally to see if he were dreaming before settling back on his bed.

“May I come inside?” The man asked once again with the same beckoning smile.

“No,” Felix replied quickly and suddenly got up and dashed out of his room once more.

This time, it actually caught the man off guard and he could say nothing to the departure.

_______________________

Felix concluded one very important thing by the fourth night: the man—the creature outside of his window cannot come inside by normal means.

It would have been so easy for the nighttime visitor to smash through the glass and step in. Or even sneak in through another means. But he never made the attempt. So far, the man only showed up at night and insistently made requests explicitly to come in. As if the boy’s verbal invitation will allow the creature passage within.

And so, Felix decided to conduct a bold experiment.

On the fourth night when the man returned, Felix was fully awake this time—sitting cross-legged on the bed and staring at the window.

The man smiled, slightly surprised.

“Good evening,” he greeted and leaned in against the frame with an arched brow.

“Evening,” Felix replied back in kind.

“Have you…been waiting for me?”

“Yes.”

The man burst into a strong fit of laughter. For once, in the last four nights, he actually sounded human. He shook his head with a long sigh and stared up, somewhat enamored by the boy.

“Eager little thing. Are you going to let me inside? I hate being out in the cold,” he asked gently.

“Why can’t you just break in?” Felix asked, tilting his head.

“Because...that’s impolite.”

“What if I open the window?”

“Is that an invitation to come in?”

The boy shook his head, feeling the rush of escalating pride flood through him in waves.

“No, I just want some fresh air.”

The edges of the man’s usual sharp smile twitched ever so slightly but did not falter. In fact, it only grew to a sardonic sneer.

“Ah, hah,” the man said in a slight realization.

Felix moved and pulled his window open, allowing the winter air to harshly assault his body in a small gust. The border that separated the child and the visitor was gone, just two bodies existing closely in the same shared space—breathing, staring, waiting.

From where Felix sat, he could finally see the large, powerful body before him with soft sunlight hair, which flowed in the chilly breeze, and glowing eyes of icy blue. The man, in turn, was watching Felix back with this semi-mesmerized and awestruck look on his face. The smile was all but completely gone, just a slightly agape mouth.

The two stared at each other, unmoving, as if petrified by their own presence. Finally, the man swallowed audibly and blinked.

“May I come inside?”

“No.”

When the man did not reply, it was Felix’s turn to smile—beaming, really.

“You...can’t come inside unless I invite you, right?” He asked in a half-laughing voice.

The stranger at the window frowned, but it was hardly striking. More so, impressed and slightly disappointed at himself. He hummed and leaned in just right against the outer frame of the open window.

“Smart little thing, aren’t you? Well, you found me out—yeah, I can’t physically come inside unless I’m verbally ‘invited’ inside.” The man explained and sneered slightly. “That’s how I feed though I never expected this meal to actually have a brain.”

“Why me? Can’t you go after some bandits in the woods or something?” Felix asked with a raised brow.

“My tastes are refined, sweet child. Above the diet of rats. And besides,” he smiled, showing his white, dagger-like fangs. “I can smell you. From a mile away. How could I ignore such a fine delicacy?”

“You can’t come inside,” Felix reaffirmed boldly, even crossing his arms.

The man gave a funny, half-grin. “Well then, we’re at an impasse.”

“Yes...we are.”

Silence returned though it was not suffocating. Just a trivial awkwardness that settled in the same vein as a quickly resolved fight—with heat still left over.

Finally, the man slightly leaned forward, not truly crossing over the realm to the inside, but hovering around the border. Blue eyes flared up like stars and a smile—one of genuine feeling, slit across his face. He placed his hand on his heart and bowed graciously.

“My name is Dimitri. And what of yours, my clever little friend?”

Felix smirked back and narrowed his sunset eyes with a newly found confidence.

“Felix.”

“Ah, well then, Felix, you should know: I am incredibly patient. Very, very patient.”

“Then you’ll be waiting for years.”

The vampire smiled in challenge.

“Oh, I am very prepared.”

_______________________

Dimitri, as Felix quickly found out, was not kidding about the extent of his patience.

Every night since then, the vampire showed up at Felix’s window, spouting the same, sickly-sweet beckoning words—pleading to come inside. And every night, the boy refused with fear growing into nonchalant irritation. The sight of the devastatingly alluring creature outside his window had something of a tiresome sight to him. Almost like how Glenn treated him on more moodier days—with boyish exasperation.

The evenings where Felix studied in his room—back turned to the window at his writing desk; once he felt the sharp prickle of Dimitri’s striking stare dug into his spine, the boy groaned audibly. Dimitri’s smile cut like a knife as he continually bothered the boy all night long, from his daily history readings to his bed time. And Felix always made it a thing to refuse.

In fact, it became somewhat of an endearing ritualistic dance between the two; the wolf asked to come inside and its prey said no. The usual nocturne tintinnabulation came on so naturally and expected that neither party slowly felt the strange, comforting nonchalance slip in between the cracks. Felix did not even feel particularly frightened anymore by Dimitri’s presence.

In fact, the boy actually felt a surge of pride and even thrill by denying the vampire entry. He reveled in simply spouting the word and watched in silent delight as Dimitri’s wickedly smiling face faltered every time—like wet clay in a child’s hands. Becoming undone by words alone.

Perhaps it was the fact that Dimitri was practically like a caged beast—terrifying up close but harmless due to the steel cage that trapped it. In this case, the cage was Felix’s verbal refusal and they both knew it.

But the vampire was hardly slighted by this. He clearly found ‘meals’ elsewhere as Felix keenly observed by the slick red at his fangs. And yet, he returned every night with a funny smile just to perform his and Felix's evening ‘dance’ until the boy drifted off in his bed.

Felix understood not why Dimitri continued to pester him even though the boy will never let him in. But the vampire arrived regardless and the boy could only sigh, exasperated.

“Couldn’t you go bother another noble? Maybe one...stupider than I?” Felix asked one evening as he laid slumped in his bed with his math book out.

Dimitri was at the window again as he has been for many nights. The vampire was peering curiously over to squiggles of numbers in the boy’s notebook, face slightly scrunched up in concentration. When Felix’s question hit his ears, he looked over and smiled.

“Who says I haven’t?” he said.

“So why do you keep coming back? You know I’ll never say yes.”

“I still want you.”

Felix rolled his eyes. “You’ll be waiting a while then…,” he muttered and made a mark in his book.

Dimitri hummed pleasantly and rapped his knuckles on the glass.

“It’s three.”

“Huh?”

He gestured to the book. “It’s three. You forgot to add the one.”

“Oh. Thanks.” Felix quickly corrected the problem and Dimitri watched in mild approval.

“Why do you need to be ‘invited’ anyway?” He added offhandedly while checking the other problems he missed.

Dimitri frowned slightly and closed his eyes. “I’m not sure, to be honest with you. My kind simply cannot enter private places unless we are invited inside,” he explained.

“Isn’t it easier to just attack wanderers at night?”

“It is...but who would dare walk around at this time than foul low – lives? No, I find those who stay indoors taste much better,” Dimitri said, emphasizing the word taste with a white smile.

“You’re wasting your time with me. I’ll never let you in. You’ll be waiting for years and years,” Felix reaffirmed with a scoff.

“I am patient,” Dimitri said solemnly and trained his eyes back over to Felix’s notebook.

The boy scribbled a few numbers down before receiving another gentle knock against the glass. He peered over slightly peckish, and watched as Dimitri made a neutral gesture with his hand.

“The trick with multiplication is to add the base number to the previous answer. You don’t need to necessarily remember the tables,” the vampire advised kindly.

“Oh? That sounds easy,” the boy stated relieved and wrote a small footnote below his tables.

“For such a rich little boy in a castle, your math tutor sure is...neglectful.”

“Tell me about it. Everyone pays attention to my big brother because he’s the heir.” Felix stopped and stared out into the room.

“I don’t think anyone noticed me much…”

Dimitri tilted his head. “Are you resentful?”

“No. I love my brother. But...I don’t like feeling invisible.” The boy muttered. Without another word, he shut his notebook, tucked everything under the bed, and threw himself under the covers with a sort of spiteful flop. Dimitri could only watch in absolute amusement and rested his chin on his palm.

“Tired?” He asked.

“No, I just don’t want to think about math anymore,” the lump on the bed grumbled.

The vampire laughed halfheartedly; he pressed his cheek against the glass, light eyelashes fluttering like wings as he smiled softly.

“I’m not kidding, Felix. I’ll wait for you for years.”

“Then for many years you’ll wait,” the boy said, voice dipped in fatigue and near-sleep.

Dimitri hummed pleasantly in agreement and rapped his knuckles against the thin glass.

“The night is oh-so cold. Won’t you open up? Let me inside?” He cooed like a lullaby.

“No,” Felix yawned instinctively and fell into a peaceful slumber.

The vampire watched the boy all night before slipping away from the first streams of the dawn beyond the forest horizon.

_______________________

Five years have passed since Felix and Dimitri’s first meeting. Winters and nights flew past and merged together with time for the two of them.

Felix was hardly a little boy anymore—age did him well with pearl white skin, long midnight hair, and eyes that always radiated intense heat. He scowled naturally, lost his boyish voice for a sharp tongue, and moved solemnly like a lone wolf.

The only company he cared to still show any of his hidden playfulness with was Glenn, who has too grown into a strong man with a striking figure—still with the same brotherly mischievous nature that defined them.

That and Dimitri.

Naturally, five years have not physically changed a creature stuck in time. Dimitri looked exactly the same as he was five years ago. Devastatingly handsome with a crown of golden hair and shining eyes of blue. He grinned foolishly, spoke with a sweet beckoning voice, and emitted an unnatural alluring presence.

But, something did change in the five years: their relationship.

It was undeniable that, in the beginning, Dimitri waited and pestered Felix constantly because the boy was a delicacy in a locked glass case.

Contained, controlled hunger.

A wolf waiting for the rabbit ran out of the thicket and into the jaws of death.

However, as the years past—nights upon nights, something transformed between them. Neither Felix or Dimitri understood when it started. In fact, it was difficult to truly pinpoint due to the gradualness of it all. The unspoken emotion between the two was certainly strange and especially suffocating to say the least.

Perhaps it began on Felix’s first birthday after his meeting with Dimitri, where the boy was quickly forgotten due to Glenn’s knighting ceremony. The boy had stayed in his room the entire evening to silently cry beneath the heavy covers. He never once replied to Dimitri’s quiet reassurements and pleas to look at him. Everything was so overwhelming that Felix eventually cried himself to sleep.

When the boy woke up, Dimitri was gone in place of a small present, wrapped in a sparkling white paper tied together with a royal blue ribbon. Felix brought the present inside, felt the heavy weight, and carefully opened the gift to reveal a shining silver dagger within with an engraved hilt.

Felix brought the knife up to his eyes, the pale moonlight striking against the sharpened side of the blade with a sheen. And, perhaps, in the moment, Felix’s small little heart was flushed with an emotion he could not decipher.

And it was painful.

After that, Dimitri left Felix a gift for the next four birthdays.

He never gave it to him face-to-face to Felix’s relief, probably understanding the need for privacy with gifts of intimacy. And the boy appreciated as he would never, in those earlier years, openly show his delight to Dimitri’s face.

Aside from the birthdays, Felix often found himself staying in his room more in the evening. From studying, practicing his swordsmanship, to even eating as he began taking his dinners there.

Dimitri proved to be an interesting company.

Beyond his usual requests for Felix to let him inside, the vampire was both an attentive listener and a source of wisdom. He was a much better tutor than Felix and Glenn’s teachers, often guiding the boy through the tougher subjects of academia like history, math, and even the sciences. Dimitri was the one who helped Felix improve his swordsmanship through advice and proper instruction.

And he was the one who comforted Felix when his father and brother were too occupied to do so. While Dimitri could not offer much in the way of physical comfort---naturally, the vampire was a sympathetic outsider, he listened carefully; he always gave gentle words of reassurement and even stayed silent when it was appropriate.

With this, Dimitri ultimately became a staple in Felix’s life, even if the vampire continued his insistence to come inside. His request and Felix’s refusal had long transformed from a test of patience between predator and prey to an affectionate way of saying ‘goodnight’.

Though none of them wanted to outright say it, one thing that united them was their stubbornness.

For Felix, he bore an intense, unspeakable fondness for the vampire, one that bordered on an affection he often denied himself regarding Dimitri and an escalating excitement from his own hold over the vampire.

Felix knew Dimitri wanted him. No longer in the sense of physical hunger but something else much entirely. Something darker and bottomless.

He first noticed it when he came into his room one evening after sparring with Glenn for hours. The young man was shirtless, covered in glistening sweat, bruises, and even thin red welts across his back and chest. He had come in to rest and cool off before bathing when he suddenly caught Dimitri’s stare.

The vampire always watched Felix when he was in the room. But this time, there was something disturbingly off about Dimitri’s attention. The glowing blue of his eyes had gone dark—black, with a swirling, aching hunger. His mouth was slightly agape with drool dripping down from the corner of his lips, and the vampire was completely petrified.

He stared so intensely that the young man’s heart practically stopped. The vampire’s darkened eyes trained unwavering at Felix’s pale body—wet with sweat and a bit of blood.

Once Dimitri licked his lips, revealing the white set of fangs hiding beneath, Felix coughed and broke the spell. The two of them stared at each other in white disbelief before the vampire’s face fell and he disappeared wordlessly in a gust of mist—shamelessly red.

Dimitri did not appear for three nights after that. And it was there that Felix understood one very important thing from that encounter.

Dimitri had been aroused from the sight of the young man and they both knew it. After that, their relationship had adopted an underlying intensity, which transformed the comfort of their sanctuary into a dangerous game—a dance for dominance.

And unfortunately, the advantage belonged to one side.

It would be an absolute lie if Felix said that the thought of him being more than a 'meal plan' to Dimitri was revolting. In fact, he found himself reveling in the vampire's obvious attraction to him, considering the intensity of his own feelings.

However, Dimitri was clearly too oblivious to really make sense of it all and Felix was too stubborn to outright say anything. Not to mention that he had to continue maintaining the clear barrier between him and the vampire who had promised him many years of ago of his patience.

Which gave Felix an incredibly dangerous idea. Or rather, a set of ideas all in a cruel and sadistic nature.

It was a few months after his nineteen birthday, where the height of spring had begun to settle in—hardly much of a change as Felix's family duchy was all the way up on the northern coast, but the weather was fairer than usual—the young man had retired early for the evening. Much earlier than Dimitri's usual time of arrival, and Felix was planning on that.

He sat down on the bed, body slightly facing the window with his bare back leaned against the pillows. Most nights in the spring, the young man slept shirtless, which proved to be an underlying problem for Dimitri. While the vampire never said anything, Felix knew where those blue eyes ultimately strayed to in the end.

The young man peered out the window and over the horizon, growing dark with fading red and purple streaks from the dying sunset. The light will slip away to darkness; night will come and allow creatures hiding in the shadows to emerge. The timing could not be any better.

Without another idle second, Felix closed his eyes and unlaced his breeches. The cool breeze passed over his exposed cock softly and it hardened excitedly in the man's grip. He hissed through his teeth and reached over to grab the vial of oil he stashed beneath the bed.

Felix was never usually so sexual, though he understood his own popularity in the northern duchies. However, the only person that ever excited him to a point of pleasure was Dimitri, and he was not sure if it was from the fact that the creature of blood could not touch him despite being so close or that Dimitri was a figure of longing for him.

Perhaps it was both.

Perhaps it was Felix's own twisted sense of power over a poor creature clearly starving to taste him.

With that thought alone and the warm slick of the oil trailing down his length, Felix breathed slowly through his nose as his hand moved up and down. Pleasure was pooling over gradually at the pit of his stomach and the young man stroke himself carefully—not too fast in worry for coming before Dimitri's arrival.

And yet, thoughts of the handsome man with a marbled-sculpted body, golden hair, and wonderfully hypnotizing eyes watching him get off had provoked a dark need inside of the young man.

Felix's eyelashes fluttered to a close as he threw his head back, his free arm thrown over his eyes, as his hand—covered in oil and precum—began to quicken to a violent pace until the only sounds in the room was a wet sleekness and the young man's soft gasps. Everything pooled darkly and swirled with a need for release, and all Felix could think about was being dominated without any escape from Dimitri.

Pinned down from all ends and taken violently without any mercy. He wanted to be fed on, sucked so dry that he could see the stars and heavens. He wanted to be bred and stuffed so fully that he couldn't walk for weeks. He wanted to be claimed so that everyone sees who exactly he belonged to.

He wanted Dimitri to squirm and want without ever being able to reach him, despite being a few inches away. The torture. The splendor. The absolute thrill of it all.

When Felix slightly opened his eyes through the heavy breathing and the fire, he saw him.

Dimitri.

The vampire had just arrived and stopped mid-way at the window. His face was frozen over in shock and awe, settled eerily straight at Felix's nearly naked body and the twitching, hot cock between his oiled-covered hand. The vampire was taut and unmoving like a statue, and he had said not a word, even as he met with Felix's heated gaze.

It was just a second between them, from the vampire's arrival to the young man's realization that he had company. They stared at each other wordlessly in a mixture of excitement and shame from two different, pulling ends.

And then, Felix licked his chapped lips, smiled and started stroking quickly as he kept his harsh gaze on Dimitri. The vampire's face twitched slightly with a growing redness—his mouth dropped with a bit of drool, and like clockwork, he unconsciously pressed himself against the glass.

Blue eyes turning black with hunger.

A lion to a locked piece of meat—unreachable and utterly delectable.

Felix took cue and closed his eyes, allowing himself to fully submerge in wet, hot pleasure, eating him up like a fire as the only sounds in the room was the slickness of his hand stroking his hardened arousal.

Hot pressure swelled violently all up his stroked length, especially under Dimitri’s unwavering eye, and before Felix knew it, he threw back his head and screamed, hot, sticky cum flooding out and painting his chest and face. There was a short moment of grievance—he breathed slowly, and looked up and around, somewhat disoriented.

When his hazy eyes landed on the window, Dimitri was still there, petrified white. The vampire unconsciously licked his lips, his gaze flushed dark with lust, and the only thing Felix could do was laugh in his face.

His chest rose and fell excitedly and the young man said: “Did you enjoy the show, Dima?”

Dimitri looked like he was going to cry. “ _It’sverycoldoutsidecanIcomeinside_?”

“No.”

Felix reveled in his cruelty.

_______________________

After that fateful night, Felix took absolute joy in his newly found hobby of torturing Dimitri.

While neither of them spoke of that incident, the young man knew that it still possessed Dimitri deeply—every time his gaze passed over any exposed skin on Felix’s body, he forced his head away. An unusually deep redness bleeding into marble-white skin from the neck to the cheek; Felix would smile to himself, so proud at the profound effect he had on his old vampire companion.

Of course, he gave Dimitri the grace of some peace before pushing the creature’s limits once more—poking the lion in the cage from the safety of his sanctuary, unaware of the dark hunger growing in the beast.

His father, the Duke, was getting soft in his advanced age. There was already talk from the court on him passing on the title and subsequent territories to Glenn. In preparation, the Fraldarius Clan had been hosting grand parties every month as a way for the heir to introduce himself to the neighboring duchies along with meeting potential suitors.

_See him? That’s Glenn Fraldarius—the first son. He’s so radiant and gallant. The Duke is ever so fortunate to have more than a worthy successor._

_Be sure to introduce yourself to Glenn! Bate your eyes and remind him of whose daughter you are! If you could get him to just look your way, it will be such a prosperous match…_

_The Duke’s son is a fine example of a glorious future. I am certain that he will show us all the greatness of our young generation._

They flocked to him as though he were the sun—brandishing their titles, family influences, and high cheekbones in hopes of the handsome son noticing them. As for Felix, he took to these ridiculous gatherings in the same way he took to his math studies—absolutely bored, apathetic, and impatient. Even as young daughters of other lords drifted over to the sullen young son, blinking with gem-like eyes and full lips, he merely scoffed at their attempts and walked away without excusing himself.

Of course, Felix never did tell his father or brother of all the noble sons that looked his way those nights. Hungry, longing eyes from future barons and dukes all centered on him and him alone. He passed by many of these men at these parties, as they danced with fair maidens, and took to chatting uselessly on politics and intrigue.

And just the fleeting image of Felix—long, black hair tied freely behind his slender back, and pale, untouched skin at the shoulder and neck, they watched him intensely before shuddering silently and forcing their heads away. Hidden desires swelling like a fog and Felix took a strange thrill at how easily they fluster in his presence.

However, the young man had no interest in any of these future lords. While his father did not seem to mind Felix’s unusual tastes in the opposite sex, even encouraging it as a means for the son to be paired up with an influential match, Felix never acted upon it: he had fun cursing out and teasing anyone who came his way and quickly left, reviling in their longing, consuming stares.

_That Felix...nothing like his brother. Impolite. Smug. The little slut is too high off of his family’s good name. If I were to get him alone…_

Felix hardly cared for these usual, short-breathed insults. He understood the swirling hunger beneath each and every remark and continued on in the same suffocating manner, even sporting a smirk once in a while for anyone who dared meet his heated gaze. His father continued to push him to make friends and even potential suitors—all to no avail.

Would the Duke have any mind if Felix revealed that his interests laid in not rich little boys but a supernatural being?

Naturally, this gave the youngest son a sinister, dangerous notion, which did not foster until the next winter ball. It was a grander affair than past parties due to the Duke’s official announcement that Glenn would be taking over as the Duke of Fraldarius in the coming year. In fact, nearly every northern duchy was present—fathers, wives, sons, and daughters draped in blue silk and silver.

High-pitched laughter and nasty gossip filled the champagne-scented ballroom as the clinking of wine glasses rang like a bell. Daughters in their long, lacy dresses immediately flocked to Glenn—dark, beautiful Glenn whose elegant yet strong figure cut into the scene like a freshly sharpened sword.

His dark hair was cut short and pulled back, revealing a wickedly handsome face and a pair of silver eyes. The soon-to-be Duke threw his head back and laughed at a passing comment and the rest of the crowd laughed with him.

Felix, who always watched from the darkness of the ballroom, scoffed at the condescending sound and stalked off to intact his plan.

He’s been to many of these parties to know where the right crowd was. Nearly every future lord wanted him—only a few would actively risk their own title and reputation to do something about it. And then there was the special minority who watched him intently, flushed with dark and oppressive intent—that was Felix’s target.

The usual group of rough and sardonic sons, ones who whistled crudely at any passing daughters, and placed a foot out once in a while for any help carrying trays of food and glasses. Troublemakers. Wealthy Ruffians. Future tyrants.

And Felix had felt these troubled heirs watch him since the day of his sixteen birthday party. By then, he had grown his hair out and all of the baby fat had melted to a slender, dark beauty. That was the only time all eyes were on him. And Felix nearly suffocated from the whole, nasty affair.

All drunken laughter stopped by that corner of the ballroom as Felix approached. Their eyes flared up suddenly at the sight of the youngest son and some even straightened up with a half-sharpened grin. Even from where Felix stood, he could feel the heat of their unspoken desire radiate thickly; he smirked back in a challenge and sized the group up. Five lords—too much for him, and probably too much for Dimitri too. Three would be enough.

“I’m feeling generous today—which of you three like to entertain me for a few hours?” He asked, watching as the many eyes on him widened in a mixture of surprise and delight.

Almost immediately, they began to bicker among each, which quickly descended into violence as one of the larger heirs took his wine glass and broke it over a small boy. Fighting erupted in that corner as some of the maids rushed over to quell the violence.

It was not so unusual for there to be some drunken fighting at these parties—northern nobility were renowned for their open rowdiness and barbaric nature, mirroring their own warriors and peasant folk.

Once the dust cleared with the floor glistening in tiny shards of broken glass and purple wine, only three of the five were left standing—bruised, bloody, and shamelessly feverish. Felix looked all up and down the victors, scoffed a bit out of disgust, and turned back—gesturing with just a single, pale finger. The three smiled among themselves, proud to be the ones to lay with the youngest Fraldarius tonight.

_______________________

A rough, calloused hand slaps violently against Felix’s pale ass and the young heir yelped-choked on the large cock that was being stuffed down his throat. Behind him, his legs were forced out widely, presenting beautifully with a pink flush—eager to be filled with just more than the thick fingers thrusting in him.

The man’s three fingers were damp, pooling slick slipping out of his tight, red hole, and when they pulled out, it clenched on nothing with a physical yearning.

A dark laugh settled above him as the man Felix was cradling under began to suck on his nipples. Sensations were being cast all over his body from the front to the back and all Felix could do is whine and wiggle his ass. The man behind him smirked at the shameful display, resting his hand on top of the red mark left behind by his earlier assault.

He leaned in over towards Felix’s neck as he groped his ass with another tight slap, the white skin soft and hot under his fingers—his large cock twitching against Felix’s entrance. Below, his partner chuckled as his own cock angled just right near the hole.

Felix started to tremble from the sensations as the man in front of him thrust deeply down his throat, precum and sleek seeping into his lapping, hungry tongue.

Above, the winter breeze blew between the bodies and everyone shivered.

“Why are the windows open again? It’s fucking cold?” The man in front grunted as his fingers coiled tightly into the dark nest of Felix’s hair, forcing the head all the way down into his hardened length.

“Because, our little whore here wants to warm us up real nicely. That or he wants all of the north to hear his cries as we stuff him full,” the one behind him murmured and brought his cock up against the young man’s eager hole.

“Then we shouldn’t disappoint the slut. Look at him: trapped on all sides, ready to be bred,” laughed the man below him as he rubbed Felix’s aching nipples.

And the only thing Felix could do is groan out and occasionally eyed the window—the sun was setting.

Finally, the two men tucked their cocks together and into Felix, spreading him wide open. They begin to fuck into him violently without any hesitation—an animalistic, hungry rhythm to the way their hips begin to grind against Felix’s ass.

The young man’s eyes flooded open white and he pulled his head out to unleash a shameless cry before being forced back onto the excited length in front of him. It was too much as hot pleasure moved in thick waves through his stomach and his cock twitched wetly against his partner’s stomach.

Felix opened beautifully around them and he continued to suck with the eagerness of a newborn baby; he looked up at the man in front of man, blinking with wet eyes as the latter licked his lips, muttering ‘filthy whore’ beneath his hot breath.

A pair of hands slid over Felix’s slender back, pulling the poor man down against cum-covered chest as the two pull their cocks out briefly, admiring the pretty pink of his insides before slamming in—fucking him mercilessly until they hit his prostate.

Felix’s eyes swelled thickly with tears as he cried into the twitching cock stuffed down his throat. Their united pleasure bounced excessively between them, their lengths probing against the young son’s stomach in a slight bulge with every thrust.

“Look how your hole swallows us up so nicely. Fucking whore, walking around with such a high attitude. This will show you exactly who you are—made to be bred like a broodmare,” hissed the man behind him as he delivered another harsh slap to Felix’s other ass cheek, gripping the soft skin possessively.

When the young son gasped out, he chuckled lowly and leaned in to bite Felix’s earlobe and whispered: “Why don’t we get married, hm? Then we can fuck like rabbits every day. Maybe if you misbehave, I’ll let my men take a round on you—fill you up so nicely that you’ll never be able to walk.”

“Fuck...you,” Felix managed to grunt as his tongue wrapped around the invading cock and sucked, inciting a groan from the man in front of him. Something dark swelled deep within him and the fantasy of being taken over by a crowd of knights left his knees feeling weak. The thought of a lusty vampire being denied a meal practically devastated him.

The man behind him threw his head back and laughed before slamming his hips in all the way, balls slapping against the ass as slick poured out. “You first, darling.”

Outside, the sun had disappeared behind the gray-blue horizon, leaving the world in a complete starless darkness.

He was almost here.

Felix could feel it and yet, he was almost there. His three partners were getting close too and he deliberately slowed himself to wait out his nighttime visitor.

“By the goddess, he feels so good. I wouldn’t mind doing this every night,” grunted the man below him. He pushed his hips up and openly grinned when Felix withered from the joint fucking into his used, abused hole.

“I hear his old man wants to get him hitched one way or another. Makes sense since Glenn’s gonna be the lord of this castle soon. Think the Duke would be open to one of us asking for this slut’s hand?”

“The deal’s gotta be good though. Better than what Fraldarius has already.”

“Man, I would fucking give half of my ancestor’s land just to stay inside his pretty little insides,” the man behind him concluded darkly as his pace quickened to a violent, desperate thrust. He was practically pushing Felix’s entire body up and down the cock he was swallowing.

Somehow, in the middle of the overwhelming hot pleasure, Felix felt it: an intense heat that forced his hazy gaze towards the cold, open window.

Dimitri.

The vampire loomed right up at the border of the window, where the line separated Felix’s foggy room and the chilly outside. His blue eyes glowed like pure flame, ebbing between emotions so bottomless that it stole Felix’s breath away. In fact that was all Felix could see as the rest of the creature’s body was shadowed pitch black like a phantom, blending right into the starless night sky.

The young son smirked into the hardened length and practically yelped as all three men closed their eyes and pushed their bodies into his at a violent, rough speed—chasing their individual pleasures with no regard for Felix’s.

Merely a tight cock sleeve to be fucked and fucked again, right in front of Dimitri.

His head jerked back to catch the hot cock emptying itself down his throat with an open groan; the other two men whose hands tightly grasped Felix’s slender hips and back in a possessive vice, threw their heads back in a gritted groan as they completely bottomed into him, coating his pink guts white until cum gushed out of his entrance. Felix’s second orgasm came in a silence violence and he swallowed down the thick liquid and felt his cock pulse out wet streams.

His vision went white and he collapsed on top of his partner, exhausted, as they all pulled out of him. Cum slipped out and in a large pool below his swollen hole, seeping deep into his sheets. His bruised mouth dripped with white saliva and he gave a sort of mad laugh as a familiar hand touched his reddened ass.

“What a prize winning mare. You know boys, I’m thinking of actually asking the old Duke for our little friend’s hand before Glenn takes over. Maybe in his senile age, he’ll let me snatch him away for good,” the man declared to his laughing friends and he stabbed an idle finger into Felix’s hole, forcing some cum back inside.

“ **T h I n K a G a I n**.”

The voice that spoke did not belong to a human. And the great, earth rumbling roar that came afterwards certainly did not come from any man, either. All three heads whipped around to the open window where a creature—a monster made completely of shadows and teeth screeched into the room—large, black wings flushed out like a dragon’s landing.

The window blew harshly as various items fell to the floor and against the back wall. A vase shattered near the door and all three men leaped up, pale-faced and fixed in a bottomless horror.

When the creature leered its head back as if it were to take a striking bite like a snake, it revealed two glowing eyes of killing blue; the men screamed and immediately took off from the room in spur, climbing over one another out the small door.

When the wind and roar died away to a weak whimper, Felix lifted his sweaty head up and blinked his hazy vision back to some form of clarity: there, at the open window, just a few inches away, his Dimitri stood.

White bodied, golden haired, and hypnotizing eyes—dark and murky.

He was breathing heavily, revealing his finely sharpened teeth as he quickly brought his hand over to the border between the outside and the inside. Something hissed with steam and Dimitri pulled his hand back as though he just touched fire.

The vampire heaved wildly, staring off at Felix with what the young man could only describe to be a dying man’s crazed and shameless desperation.

“ **F e l i x l e t m e i n s i d e. N o w**.”

“...No,” the young man managed to slur into the pillow of his soiled bed.

A hiss between gritted teeth. A hand clenched tightly until black blood dripped between the fingers. An impatience running thinner and thinner until there was nothing human left. Just a beast craving blood and body.

“ **F e li x. P L E A S E. L e T m E i N n**.”

“No.”

Dimitri buried his face between his bleeding hands and it looked like he was crying. But when he lifted his head once more, Felix could see the swollen darkness hiding beneath---pure black eyes and white teeth shining in the darkness. A growl rumbling beneath and then the animalistic roar to the open sky. The creature screamed wildly, showing its true winged form once again before humanity came back and Dimitri returned once again. His eyes were foggy and wet with tears and he was huffing with sweat dripping down his brow.

“Fe...lix...p..lea...se...c-col...d...out...side…,” he murmured lowly like a drunk, each word slipping through his sharp fangs in a slur. Hot tears trailed down his white cheeks in wet, glistening trails and dropped from his trembling chin and onto the windowsill.

Suddenly, the vampire’s eyes widened as two hands reached over and cupped either side of his face—thumbs wiping the wetness from beneath his long lashes in a deep show of intimacy. Felix was on his wobbly knees, pushed right up against the window so he could slip over the border and touch Dimitri just right outside in the cold.

The two stared at each other from their respective domains: one of a sinister, ever-hungry nature, ebbed with the deep tragedy of being denied and rejected from an object of desire right in front of him; one of a sadistic glee, covered white and bruised purple, whose heart was beating so savagely against his rib cage that he felt like dying.

Finally, Felix leaned over until his lucid face was inches away from Dimitri’s, their breaths intermingling softly—eyes fluttering like the take off of a butterfly.

He smiled wearily with an intoxicated gaze, and asked: “Dimitri, do you love me?”

“ _Yesyesyesyes_ ,” the vampire replied in a hypnotized mantra, unblinking and unmoving.

“And I’m not just a piece of meat for you?”

“No, no, no—I’ve been yearning for you most earnestly since I first laid my eyes on you.”

“Then if you want me—prove it. Show me the full extent of your love and I will invite you inside and into my bed for good,” Felix whispered sweetly and leaned in to place a soft kiss on Dimitri’s cold, trembling lips. It was just offering the lion a taste of the meat and it was enough for the vampire’s eyes to go dark and he chased after Felix’s retreating lips—he stopped right at the border, petrified.

The young man laughed, the sound of mirth, and he sat back on the bed. He spread his legs out, revealing his abused, soiled body in the gentleness of the moonlight; how his nipples were swollen red and his chest was covered in cum right down to his soft cock. And then the redness of his hole.

Dimitri practically mewed at the sight, biting his lips black. “And if you’re slow on the draw, I might just fuck all of the north in front of you—let them fill me up every night while you’re sitting there, knowing that you can do absolutely nothing. How does that sound, Dimitri?”

The vampire hissed out loudly, dark blood dripping down from his lips.

“Well then, off you go---”

In an instant, shadows spun around in a violent, all-encompassing whirlwind that nearly sent the young man flying off the bed; when Felix finally opened his eyes, Dimitri was completely gone—just a desperate flying silhouette in the far away distance, growing smaller and smaller until he was merely a dot against the moon.

_______________________

That morning, Felix was woken to a ruckus right below his window. The young man rubbed his eyes, grumbled irritably, and threw his window open to look down. Right below at the very base of the castle wall was a confused crowd including his own father and brother. They scratched his heads and whispered among themselves in a semi-frantic manner.

When Felix followed their gaze, that was when he saw it, though it should have been more obvious: a gigantic pile of finely engraved and exotic swords with wrapped hilts of different colors, climbing all up against the wall until it was merely a few feet from Felix’s window—on the fifth floor. It piled on so enormously and fully that there was enough to supply an entire small army of at least five thousand.

Glenn looked up from the sight, stared right at Felix, and smiled warily.

“Hey Fel. I think...you might have an obsessive suitor here!”

Some of the swords at the top of the pile fell back down and landed near some of the castle staff’s feet, the crowd backing up with an audible gasp.

“You don’t say...”

_______________________

Dimitri proved to be an incredibly dedicated suitor, so much so that both the Duke and Glenn were considering having an investigation done out of fear that this was more of an obsessive stalker situation.

The methods were extremely unorthodox of a typical noblemen; piles of hunted game thrown on the door steps of the kitchen, sets of finely crafted armor and blades left all along the wall of Felix’s window, and even direct messages penned with a shaky, child-like hand, as if the suitor was not used to writing—clearly, as the communication was as cryptic as the gifts themselves.

**I love you. Let me inside.**

Naturally, Glenn took to these as signs of a highly deranged man and posted guards all along the castle day in and day out. Felix, on the other hand, simply rolled his eyes to all of the hysteria and continued on with his day as if he was not being courted by some mysterious madman.

In reality, Dimitri was as dangerous to him as a church mouse, even with all the black wings and teeth—he knew that Dimitri would never hurt him though most nights he questioned this sentiment.

True to Felix’s word, he was attempting to fuck all of the north. Every night of their family’s monthly parties, Felix would invite three-to-four nobles into his room. Once the boys were inside, he closed his eyes and descended further down into pure and ugly degeneracy—hands grappling all over his slender body lustful and without restraint.

Word had already gotten around that the youngest son of Duke Fraldarius was a common slut—behind that high-maintenance and leering disposition was a thirsty whore yearning to be filled up and bred. As such with every party came a dark, underlying excitement among the noble sons.

Their fathers assumed it to be the natural attitude of meeting up with potential young dames, unaware that most of their heirs was fucking Felix Fraldarius upstairs. The young man was usually sandwiched between two large bodies, lifted up with his legs pushed up against his white chest, as they thrust deeply into his tight pink guts. His hair fell over like black, spilled ink over his back as he lulled his mind-shot head to the window.

Even if the others could not see the vampire lurking around outside the window, Felix could see him. He knew that the creature was always there—always watching the entire scene unfold and could do nothing about it. Despite the clear anger shining deeply in Dimitri’s eyes, there was also an excited gleam. One of clear arousal and swirling desire.

And Felix could only smile at this, pleasure boiling over at the knowledge that his continuing denial of Dimitri’s greatest want.

Once his partners filled him up until his small stomach bulged and a puddle formed around his hole, Felix pushed his bruised body up from the soiled bed and used the last ounce of his strength to pull the windows open. There the vampire sat, head buried between his trembling hands, and chilly winter breath coming out in heavy, herculean drawl. Felix’s cruel heart always soar to wicked heights at the sight of the broken creature and reached over to touch him just over the border.

This time, Dimitri shot out and grabbed Felix’s arm, yanking the weary young man nearly over the window. Felix, so taken over by the numbness of his body and mind, could hardly register the oppressive sinister look Dimitri was giving him from a mere inch away as they stared at each other—one nature too torn by the physical domination of near-rape and the other absolutely defeated by his helplessness and constant denial.

Finally, Dimitri hissed out slowly—sharply, and closed his eyes.

“Is this...this is a game to you, isn’t it? You were never serious about even giving me a chance,” he muttered lowly, voice wavering between animal and man. His grip on Felix’s arm tightened, sending small signals of consciousness to the comatose young man until he stirred slightly. “I saw the way you looked at me as you were getting fucked. You like it, don’t you—that I can’t do shit while you’re getting raped on the bed just a few inches away. Felix, you have always been a cruel, cruel boy.”

“If you’re so upset, why don’t you pull me out of this room? It would be so easy for you to yank me out and no longer need invitation. Or just cast your hex on one of the castle maids or guards to let you inside. Or even just snatch me up from the party whenever I take strolls outside in the courtyard,” Felix pointed in a small, tight voice—a notion he had always carried with him since he was a boy. “You had so many opportunities to come inside or even drag me out—why not indulge?”

Dimitri shook his head morosely. “Because you would hate me! You would never love me if I force you against your will. I wanted you to love me back and invite me in by your own volition.”

“I do love you,” Felix confessed casually with a bit of a slur to his words.

“Then why are you doing this? I have given you everything—brought you things that will keep this castle running for years. Or you didn’t like the swords and meat? Have I misjudged your tastes all these years?”

“ _No, no, no_ ,” the young man murmured lucidly and nudged Dimitri’s grip away, still keeping his own hands wrapped gently around the vampire’s wrists. He brought his companion’s hands over on both sides of his sweaty, white face, and laughed in a mad trance when the vampire cupped his cheeks. “It was surely strange and even scared my brother, but I loved it—all of it. No one’s ever wanted me that much before, even the men I bring to bed.”

Dimitri’s gaze softened and a deep sadness engulfed his face; the vampire looked so human, he made Felix look like a broken marionette doll by comparison. “Then why do you keep doing this? You know it hurts when I see you with other people every month. None of those boys even love you one bit. Not like how I love you,” he murmured weakly.

“Oh, believe me, I’m aware. I’m just incredibly cruel, especially when it comes to you,” Felix said and leaned forward until his bleeding lips pressed into Dimitri’s.

The vampire’s eyes immediately went dark upon the thick, metallic taste of the young man’s fresh blood seeping into his mouth, and almost immediately, he threw his arm around Felix’s back and pulled him in desperately. A cold tongue invaded between the young man’s lips and he gave an inaudible groan, feeling a violated, overstimulated heat return in a red bloom.

When they pulled away, a web of red saliva dribbling between their glistening mouths, Felix panted—still half mad and fully exhausted from his earlier conquest; Dimitri licked his bloody lips and physically shuddered at the taste, eyes still black and bottomless.

Felix laughed softly and wavered back and forth. “You know...it always scared me as a child...that you would find a way to infiltrate the castle and devour me. But you’ve been waiting for so long...and I couldn’t help but test you. It was so exciting to see your face every time you found me in another sweaty pile on the bed. Ah, but that’s too sadistic, isn’t it?”

“Felix…”

“If you want, I’ll invite you in now—let you feast on my weak and broken body until I’m dried out like a rag. Once you have your fill after five years, you will finally be liberated and fly off to go bother another stupid noble,” Felix suggested in a drunken lightness, never once noticing the red-hot fury that bloomed all over Dimitri’s white face. His hands grasped Felix’s face tightly and he practically dragged the young man out the window in anger.

“No. I love you. I want to stay with you for all eternity.”

“I’ll die one day.”

“I’ll turn you into one of my own. We’ll go anywhere you want, see whatever you like, do whatever you like—together, forever.”

“Ah, hah...a vampire. That’s not a bad thought...I wouldn’t mind flying around and feasting with you for eternity,” Felix said, blinking the haze away from his eyes. “But my father, he won’t give me to just anyone. Probably someone of the damned nobility. But Glenn will be the new Duke in the coming year and he’ll be more lenient. But still, I doubt either of them will let me go for a stranger like yourself…”

“So...should I become a nobleman then?” Dimitri asked with excitement flashing like a far-away signal upon his face.

“Well, it’s harder than that---”

“I’ll become one then. I’ll go off and grab myself an estate. A title! Just like that ridiculous flashy father of my mine with his stupid long, black cape and ominous castle in the other city. I’ll inherit his title as Baron and come and whisk you away!”

“No, wait Dimitri---”

Before Felix could finish his sentence, the vampire pulled him into another deep, hungry kiss. He even nibbled playfully at his bottom lip, drawing some more blood and sucking it in eagerly. Dimitri reluctantly pulled away, heaving excitedly, and smiled like the sun he never saw.

He let Felix sit back on his bed and flew away in a violent gust. The young man watched the dark silhouette sail over the black horizon and disappeared like a dying star.

And the entire time, Felix’s heart would not stop; he laid down on the ruined bed and realized that he just accepted a marriage proposal.

_______________________

Dimitri did not come back for an entire month.

Felix immediately sensed the vampire’s absence when he failed to show up the first night of the new month. And then the night after. And the night after. Sometimes, the young man would stay up awake all night just to watch the horizon go from a purple black to a light yellow, all without the grace of his usual night time companion begging to come inside from the cold.

In fact, Dimitri’s absence had thrown Felix off so drastically that the young man had begin to develop dark rings under his eyes from a lack of sleep. His attitude had become much too unbearable with even his own family turning a corner whenever they spotted him stalking murderously down the hall. The staff, especially steered clear of the young man, with only the senior employees braving to bother Felix in his dark moods.

Eventually, this wrathful disposition turned inward into maddening grief; Felix’s dreamless sleep transformed into terrifying visions of his old vampire friend being pierced by a stake through the heart, screaming out into that ugly, bottomless night for Felix until he withered away to dust.

These nightmares forced Felix up in cold sweat, heaving violently and crying for the man who never showed up at his window. What if the vampire was killed, by one of the famed northern monster hunters his father always praised at the dinner table? What if he was laying dead somewhere, buried so deeply into the earth that there was no way of recovering his bones?

It was these thoughts that transformed Felix’s wrath to paranoia, and eventually, he stayed locked up in his room for wait of Dimitri—each day a worse curse than the last with Felix even apologizing in a frantic mantra to the empty room—the sorry’s he wished he would have given to Dimitri on his sadistic behavior.

But the vampire was not here and Felix was simply a madman muttering darkly beneath his new sheets.

This month, Glenn had officially become the new Duke of Fraldarius, with the coronation being perhaps one of the biggest affairs the north has ever seen. Of course, that alone was an understatement to this month’s official welcome ball, hosted by the new Duke himself.

Glenn—beautiful, dark, and noble Glenn, draped in his family’s teal color and shield-like crest, with his midnight hair slicked back and tied together like a knight. He had become the north’s most admired noble, a shining example for other future lords to follow in an earnest nature. As a result, this upcoming ball was considered to be the most looked-after event of the last few years, especially since both Glenn and Felix were bachelors.

And as for the case of Felix, this ball was going to be the most dangerous.

Perhaps the young man should have seen it coming. He had been fucking around with all these violent and wicked sons that one of them was bound to step up and actually face the new Duke in his younger brother’s hand in marriage: that man turned out to be the imposing heir from the Rowe duchy who had marked Felix’s ass so severely that first night, the young man could hardly sit for a week.

And while both Glenn and Felix had been extremely adamant in entertaining the idea, that brutal, tyrannical ex-lover had soon become the new Count of Rowe. And soon, all subsequent proposals were treated with an air of utterly deep caution.

And everyone knew it.

“You don’t understand, Felix—He’s the fucking Count. If I were to continue to refuse him, he might take it as a sign of hostility and we could lose support from Rowe,” Glenn groaned one night, rubbing circles in his temples. The talks of marriage on both ends went on for days—weeks at a time, and Felix was starting to see strips of gray hiding beneath the ink-black of his older brother’s hairline.

“I know—I know! But it’s my fucking decision! I don’t want to have anything to t-that monster. No, I’m staying right here, your grace,” Felix snapped harshly, red eyes flaring like fire.

“Fel, please…you think I’m happy?! The Count keeps sending a fucking envoy every week and all I can do is pray that the rejected caravan won’t result in a message to duel or even a withdrawal from our council. My only question is: why in the fucking world is he so obsessed with you?”

_Why don’t we get married, hm? Then we can fuck like rabbits every day. Maybe if you misbehave, I’ll let my men take a round on you—fill you up so nicely that you’ll never be able to walk..._

_Man, I would fucking give half of my ancestor’s land just to stay inside his pretty little insides..._

_What a prize winning mare. You know boys, I’m thinking of actually asking the old Duke for our little friend’s hand before Glenn takes over. Maybe in his senile age, he’ll let me snatch him away for good…_

Felix shook the memory away and looked away to avoid Glenn having to see the blood red stained on his cheeks. “N-Not sure…,” he lied in a strained voice.

Glenn leaned forward and frowned deeply. “You don’t think he’s that crazy bastard whose been dumping thousands of swords on our lawn in the past few months?”

“What, you think Rowe would actively donate that stuff to us? Fuck no, Glenn.”

“I mean...he has been sending you lots of gifts---”

“Enough! I won’t hear it anymore,” Felix declared and stood up so abruptly that his chair flipped back and landed loudly against the marble floor. The young man stalked off, fists clenched at his side, but not before turning around and stating hotly. “And you—you don’t call the shots here with my future, Glenn! If I find someone I want to spend the rest of my sad life with, I’ll be sure to call you over. But don’t you think for a second that you have any say here.”

Glenn stood up slowly, gray eyes dark and small. “Say what you want Felix, but keep our family legacy in mind. Please.”

“Fine. I’ll try and reject all proposals from dirty farmers and vagabonds for your sake. Let’s just hope your fun little party at the end of the month goes well or else, I’ll cut someone’s head off.”

At the back of Felix’s mind, the only thing that ran through his head was: Dimitri, Dimitri, Dimitri.

_______________________

All of the north was here and then some.

In fact, there were so many guests in attendance for the new Duke of Fraldarius that the staff had to open up the courtyard doors and expand the party all the way to the gardens where the crystal fountain and the green hedge maze was.

By the time the guest arrived in their horse-drawn carriages from all parts of the country, the ball had already gone underway—five times larger than they had ever seen with most of the castle open—bright and glowing like a beacon against the starlit night.

Noblewomen arrived their sparkling gowns and towering hairdos, ready to show themselves off to the handsome bachelor Duke. Noblemen, many of whom had become counts and barons in the last few weeks, arrived to pay their respects to the new generation of reigning lords—and to seek out his younger brother.

Unfortunately, Felix was in no mood to have anyone entertain him tonight. The younger Fraldarius watched as Glenn greeted the crowd from the grand staircase, his dark figure cutting into the brightly lit castle decorated blue and white like a dagger’s sheen. He was like the sun, so bright and consuming that even Felix had to look away in order to ease his eyes from the older brother’s glory.

Everywhere he went, laughter and praises followed, and for a moment, everyone saw into the future: Glenn would have a luxurious legacy carved out for him, imprinted in the stars with the rest of the greats. He even shadowed the new counts and barons present in the very room and they looked on with a sickly, dark envy.

And then Felix thought of his own future: it was not here at the castle—this belonged to Glenn and, someday, his own family. For the younger sons, it was always expected for them to marry daughters of other lords and inherit small titles and territories outside of their brothers’.

For Felix, this was not an option and he made that very clear when he tarnished his own reputation among the other lords. So what was in stock for him now? To become an unmarried noble and live out the rest of his days whoring himself to unruly nobles? Or perhaps he could abandon his title and travel around the world. Though, there was a strange sadness to the knowledge that he would be alone.

Dimitri.

Felix shook the name from his head and exited the ballroom, heading out towards the larger part of the party in the gardens. There were many couples here, enamored by the gentle glow of the lanterns in the black trees or how the marble fountain flushed out freshly scented champagne, sparkling in the moonlight.

The young man watched as women slowly danced with their newly wed husbands and passed by them without a second thought. He kept walking until he reached the ever-looming hedge maze by the end of the gardens—a ridiculous structure built by his father one drunken day in his youth.

Felix remembered how infamous it was, how nearly no one in all of the north knew how to get out the other end. There were even some incidents of people getting lost for hours, forcing either one of the Fraldarius brothers to come get them—only they knew how to navigate the maze as they used to play in all the time as boys.

Even now, standing in front of its entrance brought Felix back to a childhood where Glenn had yet to become the Duke and he didn’t have to worry about being married off like some broodmare.

Of course, memories of childhood were never everlasting. And oftentimes, they were cruelly interrupted.

“Fraldarius.”

A hot, laughing breath touched the back of his neck and a large hand squeezed his ass; Felix immediately stepped back towards the entrance in a horrified gasp and looked upon the sneering, brutish face of the new Count of Rowe and other noblemen—all of whom Felix shared his bed with before.

The man grinned wolfishly and stalked forward with his hands in his pockets and head forward as if he were about to give chase. Instead, he stopped just short a feet away from Felix and hummed nonchalantly.

“It’s been a while now. I do miss that tight ass of yours,” he said, dark eyes undressing Felix’s figure in a clear, aching hunger.

“How many convoys and proposals do we have to reject in order for you to get the message? I don’t want to marry you, dip shit,” the younger son shot back, unaware that the entire area around the hedge maze was completely devoid of people with the exception of Count Rowe and his entourage.

Felix stepped back some more but this only encouraged the smiling Count to come closer.

“Now, now, now,” he started and shook his head. “I think the one who doesn’t get the message here is you and that brother of yours.”

“And what message is that?”

The Count leaned in close until the smell of rum wafted between them, forcing Felix to leer his head away in disgust. From here, he could see the pulsing darkness in the Count’s pupils, throbbing with malicious and hungry intent.

“That if I don’t get what I want, I’ll withdraw from the council and make the new Duke look like a selfish, incompetent fool.”

Felix’s sunset eyes flared with fire. “You wouldn’t fucking dare! As if you can support yourself, asshole!”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that. There are many, many, many northern territories that are getting irritated by your bachelor status and your brother’s refusal. And well, it goes without saying: wolves hunt in packs.”

“Don’t any of you dare fucking touch me!” He hissed and jabbed a finger at Count Rowe, revealing the sharpness of his own teeth. “I say what goes in my life and I don’t need a group of rapist-suitors force me into any fucking deal.”

Count Rowe’s smile widened. “Even if it means territories pulling out from the council on the account of you and your brother’s refusal?” The group around him nodded silently in agreement, slinking forward on all sides until Felix was trapped right at the entrance of the hedge maze. The young man peered around, feeling his heart beat wildly against his chest—a rabbit’s fear heightened and near-death.

“You...what do you want?” He finally asked, staring straight at Count Rowe with narrowed eyes.

The count tilted his head. “Stop keeping us waiting. Choose.”

“You want me to...choose between the lot of you? That’s like choosing which piece of shit to shovel up.”

“Your humor is fresh, Fraldarius. Make a fucking decision and stop leaving all of us on the hook. It’s pissing off all of the north and it won’t be long before...someone snaps,” the count growled viciously, revealing his true sinister nature beneath his sharply handsome exterior.

“You all want me so bad?” Felix looked behind him towards the hedge maze and looked back towards the advancing group. Suddenly a dangerous notion came to his mind and Felix’s lips pulled into a half, bemused smile. They were all forgetting that this was his home—his domain.

“Okay, how’s a challenge then?”

The count’s brow arched up curiously and his mouth curled into a frown. “What challenge, exactly?”

“Catch me through this maze. The first one who does gets my hand. Of course, if I escape on the other side, I get to keep my bachelor status and you all can’t bother me or my brother again on this matter.”

“The rabbit wants to get chased through a maze by the five of us? My, it’s as if he wants to get fucked again,” remarked one of the lords in the back with a laughing voice.

“So all we have to do is chase you and if one of us manages to snatch your pretty ass, that person gets to keep you? No complaints or refusals?” The count asked, ignoring the excessive chatter of his companions.

“Exactly. I’ll even advocate the marriage to my brother and he’ll accept in a heartbeat. But if I escape, you all cannot propose to me again nor can you cease support for the council,” Felix repeated harshly, stretching his long legs as he watched the group descend into an excited chatter. “But I get a one minute head start.”

“One minute? As if it will make any difference in a gigantic maze like this. We’ll sniff out your pretty scent right away.” The count grinned with sharp, white teeth, and gestured to Felix with a dismissive hand wave. “Go on and run off little rabbit. In a minute, I shall meet with you shortly and make you my wife—taking you right then and there in the grass would really bond us together, wouldn’t you say?”

“Overconfident ass,” Felix sneered spitefully and spun around with his long hair tied back.

The young man wasted not a second and disappeared right down the first stretch of the dark maze. Behind him, the nobles laughed as they took off their heavy cloaks and chains, already prepping for what they believed to be an easy hunt.

It was no surprise that the greatest and most thrilling past time for the northern nobility was hunting for sport. So often did some of the lords gathered at the Tailtean Plains for a game of fox hunting and pheasant shooting, bringing their horses and hounds for an afternoon of savage slaughter.

Felix only attended once with Glenn and never again, unable to stomach the sick expressions of glee on their faces. Of course, it was there he understood the thrilling rush the noble brats all experienced: none of them could refuse a good hunting challenge and this was no different.

But none of those fools could anticipate that the Fraldarius Hedgemaze was not created as a decorative piece to the garden like other castles; it was made to upset, trap, and utterly destroy its challengers, and only Felix and Glenn memorized the inner workings.

The young man immediately ducked left and right with ease before heading down a straight line and slipping to the right where the maze began to split into five separate routes—some with short dead ends and other with more prolonged dead ends. As Felix turned right again and continued down silently, he could hear in the far beginning of the hedge maze, the excessive chatter of the nobles. They panted wildly with overwhelming confidence and suddenly turned into dark, chaotic confusion.

“Dammit! There’s like six different paths!”

“Split up! He’s bound to be down one of these,” shouted a familiar voice, pent with so much frustration that Felix could not help but let out a low laugh under his breath.

Behind him, the voices soon turned to utter dismay—calling out to each other desperately in the darkness. Some of those nobles probably ended up in dead ends, trying to back track around through the lefts and rights only to get further lost. Even the count, who sounded the closest, stopped dead and asked where the others were.

Felix went on without another word, his legs automatically shifting to the patterns of his childhood ventures. The fastest both he and his brother ever finished was five minutes and that’s including last year where the two decided to take another shot in the dark.

Even now, Felix could feel his record slipping past his fingers as he reached the middle of the maze. The hunters were so far behind him that he could only hear the echo of their voices in despair—he’ll have to ask Glenn or any of the senior gardeners to fetch them out later.

As Felix ran, feeling the end of the maze draw near from his twists and turns, the confident lord suddenly stopped. An absolutely cold dread fell upon him like the drop of the coin in a silent room and Felix held his arms together as he turned around and stared back at the darkness. He couldn’t hear anyone—not a breath nor footstep and yet.

Someone was coming after him and he was very close.

Felix let out an involuntary choke and dashed down the stretch in a controlled panic. In his throbbing mind, he wondered which one of those lords managed to find their way around the fake passages and dead ends of the maze. Perhaps someone actually got lucky and made the right calls. Either way, what was once confidence had transformed quickly into determination: Felix would not give himself up to any of these slobs, one way or another.

Once the young man made the last right turn, he spotted the open spot at the end of the maze—the gentle light of the open area flooding into the maze like a holy signal. Felix’s heart beat with excitement and the numb ache of his legs shot up to extreme pains, but he ignored it all. Felix was so close to victory; there was no way anyone could touch him anymore. No one.

And then Felix saw it, a sight that boiled his blood hot red and a tremendous pressure swelled in his frantic heart, threatening to burst: a dark figure standing at the end of the maze, covered in leaves and twigs, head-to-toe.

A white, half-crescent moon smile of a cheater: The Count of Rowe.

“You fuck---!”

Someone tackled him from behind and Felix fell with his head slammed into the wet grass. A strong pair of arms slink around his heaving torso and the young man was lifted up from the ground, his entire body being hugged in a tight vice against a heavily muscular body. Felix tried turning his head around to catch a glimpse of his captor, but the large arms immobilized him with an inhuman strength that all he could do is let out a weak groan.

He was forcibly carried out of the maze and the Count gave an unexpected snarl as his eyes lit up harshly. Behind him were other members of his circle, disheveled with small twigs and leaves in their usually well-kept hair and clothes.

“Who the fuck are you?” The count demanded and Felix could see that he was pointing to the man holding him up from behind.

A sharp smile curled up against his back, and what came was a deep voice in a slow drawl, with each word pronounced in a strange eloquence between a simple man and something close to an animal. Felix went stiff cold as he was gently placed back down on the ground, revealing the face of his captor.

“Why, I am the Baron of Blaiddyd, of course! The name is Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd and it is a pleasure to make everyone’s acquaintance.” The man with his wonderfully golden hair pulled back into a magnificent small ponytail; he was draped in a great blue-white furred cloak with a silver breastplate, and he gave an overly dramatic bow.

When the man rose back up, imprinted on his silver armor was none other than the black family crest of Blaiddyd—jagged edges like a star, and all everyone could do is gawk in absolute silence.

“I...I didn’t know the late Baron had sons,” the Count Rowe said stiffly, with his face pale and twitching.

Dimitri smiled brightly and cocked his head. “Oh yes, well, as you know, we like to keep to ourselves while everyone else fumbles about at these events. We’re practically vampires at this point, though the paleness of my skin is simply the sign of our great bloodline.” He said in the same mimicking voice of a man—of a nobleman: slightly high, amazingly pretentious, and guided by a source of self-admiration and worth.

The vampire was a surprisingly good actor.

“Why haven’t we seen your face before?” Asked one of the other lords as he picked small pieces of wood from his hair.

“As you know, our family has always been so reclusive. I bet I’m the first Blaiddyd outside of the castle in decades! Of course, my father recently passed away this month...” Dimitri put his arms out, gesturing to all six inch and two inches of his striking frame. “So here I am! And it looks like I caught myself a wife.”

Felix faced reddened and his coming insult got caught right at the base of his throat; he choked wordlessly and stiffened when he felt Dimitri’s gloved hand slick around his lower back to his hip, bringing him closer.

“Now hold up! The contest was for us—not you...L-Lord Blaiddyd,” the count corrected in a voice pent in both anger and genuine confusion over addressing the noblemen.

“Huh, because as I recall, you said that the northern territories were getting irritated over Felix’s bachelor status and that he must choose. Well, he offered his challenge, we did the run, and I was the one who caught him...,” Dimitri smiled ruefully and eyed the group of nobles with an open amusement. “..fairly. Now as per his deal, no one can pull support from the council since he’s now betrothed.”

“This is bullshit! Where the fuck were you during all of this?!”

“Behind everyone. No one saw me—I was eavesdropping. Like a bat.”

“T-This cannot possibly count, right,” sputtered Count Rowe as he backed away. The usually sardonic and wicked noble looked so small and discolored from where Felix stood—safely hooked to Dimitri’s side. The other nobles rubbed the backs of their dirty necks and peered all along the ground; as hierarchies go, no one dared go against the word of Baron Blaiddyd and with good reason.

That family owned most of the north, of course.

“Come now. I caught our little rabbit fair and square, while you lot decided to ruin the gardeners’ handiwork. Shame on all of you to resort to cheating but I still won at the end of the day. Now, if you like to further complicate the matter, we could always duel...but then I would be responsible for putting several of lords six feet under in their family mausoleums.”

A threat, veiled with an icy smile and a wink of a single blue eye, ominously ebbing in the darkness like a flame. There was a special power to implication—an art, truly, especially with the nobility. With them, speech was a craft that was necessary to master and everyone indulged in the talent. Be it sarcasm, wit, or pure slander, but it all hid behind a layer of implication.

Felix was blunt and edged, only a master at digging his blades into other people’s flesh, but even he understood that Dimitri’s threat reigned closer to an executioner’s oath than a clever Baron.

And everyone felt it in the air.

“Listen: you can’t just come here after a lifetime of social inactivity and threaten me,” Count Rowe snarled, the only one brave enough to step up to Dimitri. His head only reached up to his nose and the Baron sneered with teeth.

“I think I can. I won and now you’re making this difficult. Why don’t you concede and slither back before I start feeling irritated? Now, go: I would like a moment with my fiancee,” Dimitri uttered very slowly, staring right into the petrified, small pupils of Count Rowe. His eyes widened and flared up like a thousand suns, burning and all-consuming; Count Rowe’s face paled and he backed up, finally showing a rare visage of submission.

Without another word, the brutish count and his friends gave a silent, half-bow before stalking off quickly through the hole they have made in the side of the hedge maze. Once their footsteps against the soggy soil and foliage died away to the darkness, Felix pushed Dimitri away and immediately slapped the vampire across the face.

“Felix! W-What in the world?!” Dimitri sputtered wildly as he cupped the side of his face. More violent swings came from Felix, his arms raising up and striking the vampire’s broad chest as he shook his head. Dimitri gently reached over and clasped his hands over the man’s bony wrists, pinning them high above Felix’s head. When he drew his head close, his eyes widened upon the sight of the young man’s crying face—soft tears rolling down in warm, glistening trails on his cheeks. He sniffed and looked away.

“I’m sorry. I’ve been away for so long,” Dimitri murmured softly.

“A month,” Felix croaked.

“A month.” The vampire let go of the young man’s wrists and cupped both sides of his wet face, thumbs drying the area beneath the throbbing red eyes; he smiled, absolutely and without a doubt, in love. “You missed me.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

“And I thought I was the only one who suffered through all of your cruel little games. How does it feel now, my beloved?”

“Dimitri, please,” Felix whined brokenly and tried to pull away, only for the vampire to keep the young man pinned between his hands.

“Felix, look at me.”

“No—fuck you!”

“Look at me. Please. I want to see your eyes.”

He looked and all he saw was an ocean. He was crying again but he lacked the strength in his arms to reach over and wipe them clean. Dimitri did that instead, and he pressed forward until he captured Felix’s lips in a breath-taking kiss; the young man gave a half sob and the vampire pushed himself in hungrily, their tongues slipping over and tied together lovingly. When the two finally pulled away, Dimitri chuckled softly and something wet glistened beneath those dark, blue waters.

“I missed you, Felix. I was so afraid when I saw those men approach you, I was thinking of jumping out and slaughtering them right then and there. Shit, look at me—I’m shaking.”

“H-How...you’re the Baron...of Blaiddyd…No one from that family…No one has ever seen anyone from that family—how are you the Baron…?,” Felix muttered lucidly as though he were peering off into a misty dream.

Dimitri blinked and smiled. “Oh fun story: My father Lambert actually is the late Baron.”

“...excuse me?”

“Well, after he was ‘invited’ inside by the husband of the first Blaiddyd Baroness, fed on him, and then fell deeply in love...which was nearly three centuries ago. Ever since then, those two have been maintaining identity after identity under the guise that the Blaiddyd family were just incredibly recluse.”

“...But isn’t the last Baron dead?”

Dimitri rolled his eyes and gave a half-laugh. “That’s just something father does every few decades or so to maintain the illusion of an active family line. He’s alive with my mother, Kyphon, under a new guise since I took over: Uncle Rufus,” he explained in a sardonic voice. “In fact, Lambert’s not even his name—It’s Loog.”

“Loog and Kyphon?!? You mean, the fucking First Baron of Blaiddyd and my Ancestor?!” Felix hissed out sharply, practically foaming at the mouth.

“Oh yeah. I guess Kyphon did come from your family line, huh? Mother dearest gave me quite a savage beating after decades of not visiting. They made me stay for an entire month just to train me on your high-end society since I never liked partaking much in the snobbery. It...It was a lot of work…”

“I can’t believe this,” Felix whispered in awe. “No one has seen any member of that family for years—they always send ministers to represent them! A minister for Lambert, a minster for Klaus...and it was just Loog posing as all these people the whole time.”

“You should see the portraits at home. Mother paints a beard or a mustache every few years and it looks like he’s just changing costumes for the theater,” Dimitri humored with a laughing smile. The vampire pulled Felix into a tight embrace, breathing in the young man’s hair with a vigorous sigh. “Does it matter now? I’m here as a nobleman of the north. I can marry you and we can be together forever.”

Felix closed his eyes and allowed him to melt into the vampire’s strangely warm breast, how his furred cloak fell over him and shielded him from the bitter, wet cold. “You do realize that since you showed your face to them—the first Blaiddyd to reveal himself after...who knows how many years, they will now expect you to actually show up to council meetings, Lord Dimitri Blaiddyd.”

Dimitri looked up to the starry sky in thought. “Eh. I’ll do half and half—show up and then I’ll just send a minister.”

“Ridiculous.”

“Hey, it runs in the family...between two generations, no less! Of course, I find it funny that I’m wooing someone of my own blood...technically.”

“Cousins marry cousins all the time here. It’s no big deal.”

“Does that mean you accept my proposal?”

Dimitri was always so blunt in his own ways. He gave every thought away with just a look—a gesture, a tiny slip that revealed what his true inner thoughts and feelings were. And a majority of the time, they were so intense that Felix tried his best not to indulge the vampire too much or else he feared that he would be caught in it all. And now, the only thing Felix could feel was the overwhelming, explosive heat of love and devotion radiating from the vampire’s shaky words, formed with a nervous smile. A worshiper to a God.

Dimitri reached his hand up and touched Felix’s face once more, the cold skin of his fingers caressing the young man in a slow and crawling embrace. The sensation was enough to bring heat back to Felix’s cheek and he slapped the hand away with a scoff.

“Come on, Lord Blaiddyd. Best take you inside and introduce you to Duke Fraldarius. Try not to seduce him as well considering our family history…,” Felix grumbled and stared back towards the maze. Before he could take a step, a hand held him back gently, and he looked back with an irritated glare.

“Uh...why don’t I just meet you at the window and we can talk. I will burn if I step a foot past the door,” Dimitri replied sheepishly, blinking away his earlier tears.

Felix exhaled sharply through his nose and rubbed circles around his temple. This was too much, even for him, who had gone so used to the vampire’s strangely quirky nature and mannerism. “Dimitri,” he muttered darkly.

“Y-Yes…?”

“...Do you have something to ask me?”

“...Marry me?”

“No, dipshit! About the weather! About the cold!”

Dimitri blinked and cocked his head. “It is cold...cold...Oh!” He shot up, dazzling like an exploding star in the sky, hundred and hundred of miles away from the world. The vampire, in all of his glorious blue velvet, silver armor, and white furs, beamed with the colors of summer. “This night is so cold, so cold. Would you open up? Let me inside?”

Felix scoffed. He then stepped forward and went on his tiptoes to plant a smirking kiss on his fiancee's trembling lips, tasting the very faint metallic nectar of blood. He’ll have to get used to it, of course.

_Yes. Yes. Yes._

_______________________

News of the Baron of Blaiddyd in his first appearance soon reached the ears of the entire party and it was not long before everyone was graced with the presence of his Lordship, surprising, arm-in-arm with Duke Fraldarius’ younger brother; Felix looked like a blushing bride with how utterly red he was and the young man quietly introduced the Baron to his startled brother.

The Duke, swallowing down his shock, offered his graciousness for Lord Blaiddyd to grace the north with his presence after years of isolation; the two nobles shook on their newfound happiness and the Duke requested that the Baron join him in the smoke room for drinks and cigars—a private talk, many nobles called it, to properly gauge the Baron’s character after a few hours of whiskey.

Felix gestured silently for the Baron to go on and watched as the two men disappeared past the foyer. He on the other hand, wet and dizzy from a long and emotional night, retreated to his room without another word.

Later that night, when Felix went down to a now empty and messy ballroom, which the servants were cleaning, he spotted a most strange sight: stumbling out of the smoke room, disheveled with both their cloaks off, the two heads of the Northern nobility—completely drunk and singing songs.

When the Duke—Glenn noticed Felix standing with his arms crossed near the door, the older brother pointed to the stupid, smiling face of Dimitri and said: “Feliz, didya know the Baren iz superrr funny?! What a guy!”

“Oh I know.”

“Wherez hez bbeen all dis time, huh? We couldve usezd him when Rowe was beaing difficult.”

“Courting sleeping maidens from their windows.”

“Ohh!” Glenn stumbled forward as Dimitri laughed, and placed two wet hands on both sides of his brother’s shoulders. Hot whiskey wafted from his mouth and he gave a happy grin. “C-Congratuzations on your enggaement to Dimaa, heree. G-Good choise! He’z so sweet annd he liikes you a shit ton.”

“I know.”

“A fookning good azz choice! Now the Count of R-Rowe cant say shit when we haave Blaiiddydd. And he can take off his knights and fook off!”

“Glenn, why don’t you retire to your den? I’ll escort the good Baron to his carriage in the front.”

“Oh, donnt be so formaall, Fell. He likkes you.”

Felix closed his eyes to avoid looking at the widening, foolish smile that his golden-haired prince was giving him from an intoxicated, blushing face; the young man swept past his drunken brother and grabbed Dimitri’s hand, leading him away wordlessly as the Duke stared on at the far wall with a glazed over expression.

“I’ll be good to fly home, Felix,” Dimitri muttered, blinking very slowly as he stumbled with each step—threatening to collapse on the marble floor.

“You? Please, spare me your stupidity. You’ll wind up in Enbarr or Derdriu if you decide to take off in such a state,” the smaller man snapped without looking back.

“Where are we going?”

“Shut up.”

Dimitri obeyed with a submissive air and allowed himself to be pulled along by Felix’s urging grip. Where they went, however, was not to the main doors to the outside where the horse carriages usually wait, but the grand staircase leading up the higher levels of the castle. By the time they reached the fifth level and into Felix’s bedroom, Dimitri stood very still and pale at the door frame.

Felix plopped himself on his bed, tearing off all of his clothes until just his undershirt and garments remained—the noble, unlike most, seldom wore any silk attire for slumber and merely collapsed in bed wearing very little. When he looked up, he saw Dimitri hovering very hesitantly between the border of his room and the hallway, the vampire’s intoxicated shell now flushed with some signs of consciousness.

“What’s wrong? Do you need to puke?” Felix asked slowly.

“No...no. I...I just never been inside your room before,” Dimitri replied in a slightly slurred voice. He blinked down at his boots and shook his head. “For the past five years, I just sat outside of that window. It just feels...wrong being in here.”

The other man cocked his head. “Why? I invited you in, didn’t I?”

“I know but it still feels weird. This room was the same room that I tutored you in math...and watched all those bastards have their way with you.”

“Ah, so that’s it.” Felix touched his sheets, brand new from last month’s event, and frowned. “It was wrong of me to torture you so terribly. But we’re engaged now and you’re the only person I will share my bed with. Come why don’t you step inside.”

“Will we be…”

“We could. But perhaps it would be better if we waited until after the wedding—so you don’t feel like one of night-time companions.”

“That...sounds nice.” Dimitri finally smiled, but it was small and nervous. The vampire still has not made any attempts to move from his post, almost in the same hesitation as if he were trespassing in an uninvited place. Felix stared at his fiancee from the bed and for the first time in five years, realized that Dimitri in all of his armor and coats was very small.

And glowed very dimly like a far-away star—out of sight and never to be remembered. For a sinister creature of the night, Dimitri seemed so human and warm, warmer than most people Felix has ever met in his life.

The young man blinked, rested his chin on his palm, and smiled very softly with a coming notion.

“Dimitri,” he called out and the vampire looked up. “Why don’t you...talk to me on the other side of this window. Doors are meant for humans, after all.”

“...Yes. That’s a good suggestion,” Dimitri replied, brightening up, and backed away into the hallway before disappearing in the shadows.

Felix took cue and laid down on his bed, back turned to the window in a mirror image of his own childhood. A little boy, ignorant of the horrors stalking outside of the sanctuary of his home, slept exposed in a privileged peace. The gentle moonlight of a starless night shone over his body and all was fair and gentle like a mother’s embrace. And then a winged shadow, dark and bottomless, blocked out all the light and that child shivering with anticipation.

“Okay, Felix. I’m here and I feel much better. Can we talk now?”

“God, you’re terrible at foreplay, Dimitri. Seriously.”

“Oh. Is that what we’re doing? Sorry, I’m seeing double of you.”

“Just say your lines.”

A knock on the thin, frosted glass. A familiar sound of love.

“It’s so cold outside. Open up. Let me inside.”

“Yes, yes,” Felix threw back the blankets and scooted over an inch with an inviting space by his side; the man with his dark hair sprayed out on the pillow like spilled ink, his shirt hiked slightly up—revealing the pale chest and slender hips beneath, beckoning in a silent language. “Come inside and warm yourself up, dear stranger.”

The vampire smiled wickedly—somewhat drunk, and gently pushed open the windows. The winter breeze flooded into the room with a kissing bite of frost and ice, snaking all along Felix’s skin like a thousand of tiny knives; he trembled with a groan, throwing his head to the side. A wonderfully elegant neck: smooth porcelain skin and the frantic bobble of a rabbit’s throat. The wolf smiled at its prey laying in the snow, stalked forward darkly, and went to claim it’s prize after five years of a patient hunt.

That night, Dimitri tasted a drink a thousand times sweeter and heavier than Duke Fraldarius’ Enbarrian whiskey. By the time small drops of red decorated the pillow from his retracted mouth, he stared with black eyes at the half-crying man beneath him; rainy sunset eyes, a soft body—warm to the touch, warmer to the taste, and dark hair.

The vampire slowly lowered himself down to Felix’s consenting lips and they tasted each other deeply in a marriage of blood, spit, and unspeakable vows of love.

_______________________

As Felix promised, their wedding bed was just between husband and wife, never again to be laid in a sadistic game of show. Dimitri was nothing like any of the men who took Felix in so violently and cruelly; the vampire was a surprisingly gentle lover, if not a bit possessive.

The dark-haired man laid on a champagne scented bed—from an earlier spill by the giggling groom. He breathed in small intervals of three as he watched his husband approach the bed from the iron-locked door. A red bloom swelled in his heart and blood tinted his cheeks when Dimitri knelt at the end of the bed and crawled over. His arms immediately went to cover his exposed body and the vampire caught his wrists gently.

“Now, why are you so shy all of a sudden? I have seen you take at least five men every month without a shred of decency,” Dimitri teased and kissed the soft under skin of Felix’s wrists, nibbling a bit even with a toothy smile.

“Don’t shame me!” Felix snapped back, red as a beet. The vampire hovered over the blushing bride’s body, his blue eyes bright and dazzling, and he leaned down to whisper into Felix’s crimson ears.

“I’m not. I’m just impressed on how well built your body is. Not that I will be rough, mind you. I’m not a beast like your past conquests.”

“I hardly doubt that.”

“Let me show you my love. Just keep your eyes open and witness my devotion.” He promised and slipped a cold hand over Felix’s pale chest.

Their only witness, the pure white moon hovering above in a sea of stars.

All of Dimitri’s actions were slow and precise, but were guided by an intense, underlying hunger that practically devoured Felix from the waves of sensations that flooded throughout his body. A slow, torturous crawl that made a minute feel like an hour, and onward.

He pressed one-two-three oiled fingers deep inside Felix’s tight pink guts—it sunk inside and swallowed up the digits hungrily—and he placed butterfly kisses all over the heaving body. Felix whined and begged shamelessly through gritted teeth for dominance and claim, pawing at the vampire’s arms.

“Patience…,” Dimitri muttered lowly and thrust his fingers up higher until he struck Felix’s prostate. Sunset eyes exploded with burning fire and desperate hands turned into painfully kneading claws at his skin. The air had suddenly churned hotly with sweaty breaths—fog frosting the windows.

“Dima, please, I need you now! Just fuck me, please!” Felix hissed and cried out into his arm when the vampire’s strong fingers curled up inside his heat and rubbed that spot beckoningly. A hot thinning liquid was milked out and slipped out of Felix’s hole in a sticky puddle on the sheets. “I’m leaking! Goddess, I’m leaking—please, I can’t take this teasing, Dima!”

Dimitri kissed Felix’s sweaty brow, muttering. “Let me enjoy the feast. I waited so long for this, beloved.” He took out his fingers, leaving the man’s hole clenching on nothing—empty and wanting. He licked the sleek off his digits while watching Felix and grinned. “Keep watching me, love. We’ll go together.”

“Yesyesyes!”

Felix obeyed with a hazy, disorientated gaze—red melded with blue—lips pressed together in a devouring kiss as something hot and large sunk into Felix’s tight insides and slowly pressed in, stretching the hot walls apart. The man gasped and Dimitri’s tongue invaded his mouth, a wetness clasping both them in the surging heat of each other’s tastes.

When they pulled away with a line of spit extending from one lip to the other, Dimitri stared right into Felix’s shaky eyes and slammed his hips in all the way, balls slapping against the base of his bride’s ass. The euphoria of watching the young man’s emotion flush so lively from physical restraint to a blossoming, explosive want—cheeks tinting red and glistening sweat trailing down the side of his face as Felix’s eyes wandered momentarily and rolled upward.

“D-Dima, I’m so full…,”

“Hush and keep looking at me.”

Felix blinked his tears away and continued to stare at Dimitri above him. Shadows veiled the vampire’s entire body except the faint glow of his blue eyes; two gems shining at the bottom of a murky, black lake, attracting all tragic visitors who should come across the creature lurking beneath its surface. It was all so hypnotizing that Felix could only let out small little gasps as Dimitri pulled out all the way to his tip before slamming back in.

“I love you. Do you know that?” He whispered as those gems in the lake narrowed to thin, blue slits and a half-crescent moon smile slit across for an attack. Felix’s exhausted and abused prostate surged against Dimitri’s continuing thrusting and the man lurched his head back and cried.

“Shut up—please, I can’t,” Felix whined out, shaking his head with half-tears. A strong hand clasped over his chin and forced his face back towards Dimitri who hovered closely; fucking Felix with deliberately slow and strong movements as the sound of slick being forcing back in tightly filled the room.

They breathed into each other, synchronized and desperate. Dimitri’s other hand clasped over Felix’s hardened cock, beautifully wet with precum and twitching excitedly in the vampire’s gentle grip. He licked his lips and stroked in momentum to his thrusts, darkening at the Felix’s increasingly loud moans.

“D-Dimitri…”

“Yeah?” The vampire sped up his hand and smiled deviously. “Go ahead—what do you want to say to me? I want to hear your voice.”

Felix panted with hot tears running down his face and clasped hands over Dimitri’s tight breasts.“I...I love you!”

The vampire fucked harshly into Felix’s prostate in a final, mighty push, sending the smaller body up the headboard. A fire soared through the man’s pulsing veins and he arched his back up in a beautifully slender curve, shooting hot ribbons of cum all over his chest and face.

Dimitri bit into the exposed part of Felix’s neck, icy fangs piercing through the skin until cold air rushed into the fresh open vein. Pain and overstimulation unified in such an all consuming form, and Felix opened his mouth and let out a soundless noise.

All was still and white and blinding.

When Felix finally blinked himself back to life, he was tucked neatly in bed, with nearly three layers of blankets over his cleaned form and a small patch right over the place where Dimitri’s bite mark. The room was dark—early morning, with a light tint of the night sky outside of the frosted windows.

Beside him, the vampire had clung to Felix’s form with a tight, warm embrace; his eyes fluttered open, the same dazzling blue Felix fell so deeply in love with for so many years. A hand slink over and cupped Felix’s cheek, the chilliness of the vampire’s skin meeting with warm blood.

“I love you, Felix.”

“I know…” The dark-haired man closed his eyes and turned to face the other side of the bed. “Iloveyoutoo.”

“What?”

“Nevermind.”

A pair of hands curled over from his back and hugged him against a muscular, loving body, radiating with inner laughter and happiness. A mouth nibbled the back of his neck and twisted into a smile.

“You said you loved me—twice.”

“Don’t push your luck,” Felix grumbled as his cheeks heated vibrantly.

“Well, lucky for me: I get to hear you say that for all eternity.”

“And you might have to wait for all eternity for the next one.”

“Oh, I’ll wait alright. I am extremely patient.”

“I know. I know.”

They laid into each other until the morning sun came. Felix got up, closed all the windows to avoid the sunlight assaulting his husband, went back to bed and fell into a deep, warm sleep against a body that held him forevermore.

_______________________

The wedding was rather Blaiddyd-style. By which, it was small, intimate, and incredibly isolated. The only guests present were Duke Fraldarius and their aging father who had taken to the news of the youngest son snatching up a match with the reclusive noble family in a semi-heart attack much earlier, and ‘Uncle Rufus’ and his wife.

Felix met Dimitri’s parents when the man was taken to the capital of Fhirdiad, up the grand castle that dominated the northern nobility’s image since its creation. ‘Uncle Rufus’ was a suspiciously spitting image of his son—golden haired, sharply masked and softly natured, with a goofy, subdued smile; his wife, the great Kyphon, who was so disturbingly similar to Felix in both looks and temperament that Felix wondered if it was a twisted tradition among those Dimitri’s vampire line—chasing after their raven-haired loves.

Kyphon took one look at Felix, recognized his own kin, and proceeded to beat his son right in front of his new bride while Loog—Rufus watched on with a funny smile.

However, the immortal pair revealed their true feelings when they offered the newly wed couple the entire province of Blaiddyd and Fhirdiad castle. Dimitri was the new Baron now and the parents could take a well relaxed vacation in the hot springs of Sreng, and possibly feast on the local cuisine as Rufus called it.

After the marriage, word quickly spread that Felix Fraldarius married into the Blaiddyd family and all underlying tension quickly died down to a faint hiss. Furthermore, Dimitri himself was a strange point of interest, being the first of his family to show himself to the public eye...at night. And as for council meetings, he followed in the footsteps of his family: he sent a minister to handle his affairs as he stayed at home and cuddled with his wife. However, Dimitri had other affairs to settle: not as a Baron though he had been much more productive with the inheritance of his father’s responsibilities, but as a vampire.

When the sun fell over beyond the black horizon, Dimitri kissed Felix goodbye and went off to hunt. As promised, he no longer bothered any nobles in their homes but went after the vagabonds and bandits of this land. It was a taste he had to acquire after years of feasting on the blood of rich folks in their grand castles, but one he did without complaint.

Once Felix was ready to join Dimitri in immortality, this would be something they could do together—‘couple hunting’ as the Baron put it with a goofy, Blaiddyd-signature smile.

Felix would spend his days between Fhirdiad and his former home in Fraldarius, visiting the Duke and going on long hunts and sparring matches until the sun was low and the sky bled red. After that, he took the long horsehide home to the grand castle of the Blaiddyd family. He took warm baths, practiced on his stances, and ate dinner alone in his study.

When the night came, the consort stretched himself out and slipped into bed wearing just light linens. But he did not sleep right away; he laid there, awake, eyes fluttering to the glass doors to their room’s main balcony looking out over the snowing city. The white moon hovered in the sky, watchful and attentive.

And then, a shadow drifted across the sky, like a fallen star meandering across the ocean, taking away all that is light and bright from the world until it stood right at the border of his door. A winged beast, a dangerous invader, a lurking nighttime visitor with a hungry gaze.

It chuckled darkly at the door as if it were not the ruler of this castle, and watched the half-sleeping man inside. Finally, with eyes of winter and golden hair of a far-away summer, the stranger rapped his knuckles on the thin glass and called out in a voice—half human, half beast, with a hint of a deeper emotion only meant for the man inside.

“This night is so cold, so cold...would you open up? Let me inside.”

And Felix, already drifting asleep under his pile of blankets and sheets, gave a groggy groan—having to recite his love vow every night for the man outside his door. His sunset fluttered open, foggy with slumber, and he muttered out with a lazy hand wave:

“Yes, come inside, my love. I invite you into my castle, my bed, and my heart for all eternity.”

But the vampire had long stepped inside and sunk his teeth deep into the neck of his wife. They held each other until the sunrise, forever buried under white sheets, messy hair, and tangled arms covered in lover bites.

For as long as the hand of time went on steadily.

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my Dimilix Exchange fic gift for [rrommath!](https://twitter.com/rrommath). You wanted vampires? I gave you vampires. You wanted a fic based off the lyrics of "Diese Kaltes Nacht"? You got it. I really hope you like my fic and I sincerely wish you an amazing new year!
> 
> As for everyone else reading this fic, this is literally just my usual standard work XD. Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys one of the funniest things I had to write all year (this is the first time I participated in the exchange event so I hope I did well) and please stay warm. 
> 
> As always, come chat with me at my [Twitter!](https://twitter.com/Meatbike344)


End file.
